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tv   BBC News  BBC News  August 14, 2017 4:00am-4:31am BST

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welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: a gun battle on the streets of burkina faso, after suspected jihadists target an hotel and restaurant. america's top general prepares to meet south korea's president, as the north says it has the right to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself. the white house defends president trump's response to the attack on anti—racism protestors in virginia. and protests against plans to build a road through a bolivian national park. we start with a developing story this hour: security forces
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in burkina faso have sealed off the centre of the capital, ouagadougou, after suspected jihadists opened fire in a busy street. the government are calling it a terrorist attack. these are the latest pictures. the country's communications minister says that, provisionally, 17 people have been killed and eight others injured. reports say a hotel and popular turkish restaurant appear to have been targeted. witnesses were quoted as saying that three gunmen opened fire on customers seated outside the hotel and the restaurant. the city centre has been sealed off by the army, and the us embassy in ouagadougou has warned its citizens to avoid the area. a bbc correspondent in the region said there are fears the attack is the work of one of the affiliates of al-qaeda that are active in the sahel region.
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a jihadist attack on a cafe nearby left 30 people dead in january last year. we are keeping across that story and we will bring you any developments as we get them. north korea has said it has the right to have nuclear weapons for what it calls a legitimate self—defence measure for its survival, from the vigor of the united states. the statement comes as the head of the us military is getting ready for talks on north korea's nuclear and missile threats. generaljoseph dunford is in seoul to meet president moonjae—in and south korea's defence minister. afterwards, he will go on to china and japan. the bbc‘s richard galpin reports. on the pacific island of guam, people turned out in large numbers on sunday to pray for peace. they are now potentially in the firing line, as the stand—off between the united states and north korea continues. pyongyang has threatened to fire missiles toward this island,
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which is home to major us military bases. we are here to pray for the leaders of those countries to be able to remain calm, and to think about the people, and the lives of the people that we have here. in japan, anti—aircraft systems were deployed at the weekend to shoot down any north korean missiles aimed at guam. this area of southern japan would lie on the flight path. this is the most serious crisis in the region since the end of the korean war, in the 1950s, according to some military experts. there is a real risk, by miscalculation probably more than anything else, and by rather unbalanced rhetoric, of something happening that no—one intends. and i think it is
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extremely dangerous — very, very dangerous indeed. i think we're closer to there being some sort of fighting in the korean peninsula than we have been since the ceasefire in 1952. despite this, us president donald trump is not toning down his rhetoric, particularly his recent statement that the us military was locked and loaded. i hope that they are going to fully understand the gravity of what i said, and what i said is what i mean. so hopefully they'll understand, peter, exactly what i said, and the meaning of those words. those words are very, very easy to understand. on monday, the united states‘ most senior general, joseph dunford, will be in the south korean capital, seoul, for meetings with the government there. the americans say there is no imminent threat of conflict, and the diplomatic track is continuing. but tensions are likely to rise even higher in a week's time, when yet more planned military exercises involving the us and south korean armed forces take place in the region. another show of force to try to convince north korea
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to halt its nuclear weapons programme. our correspondent in seoul, robin brant, gave me this update on the latest comments from north korea. well, these are words that emerged in the state—run newsagency in the last hour or so. and this is addressing what they refer to as their nuclear possessions. now, they say the nuclear capability that north korea has, and the vast majority of the intelligence assessments says they do now have nuclear capabilities. they say it is a legitimate form of self defence. now, that is often the rationale behind the justification for having
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nuclear weapons used by nuclear powers across the world. it is a deterrent. that is the logic we are hearing from north korea in this most recent of announcements. so fairly mild words. i think perhaps tomorrow, tuesday, liberation day in the north, we may hear more of that bellicose rhetoric from kim jong—un, north korea's leader. liberation day is one of those days throughout the year when we get state m e nts or shows of strength from the north. now, general dunford is heading your way. what will seoul want from him? do you think they are in lockstep in their policy on north korea? they are in lockstep according to military readiness. general dunford comes here to have meetings, notjust with the president,
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president moon, but also this country's minister of defence. in terms of the military approach, it is clear that they stand together and are ready for swift action, which was the phrase we heard over the past few days. there are around 30,000 american troops here, and south korea has 500,000 troops. south korea are key to protection in the region. they have the controversial thaad anti—missile system. that is controversial. it is a scheduled visit. he will also go to china and japan. it is not an emergency visit, but nonetheless important. clearly, events in the north and the increase of the rhetoric will dominate. and, for more on the currents tensions with pyongyang, you can take a look at our website. you will find lots of analysis
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on what it means for the countries caught up in the north korea crisis. just go to bbc.om/news. a day after violence erupted in charlottesville, the virginia state governor is trying to defuse the tension. governor terry mcauliffe denounced the people who attended the unite the right rally. it was the biggest gathering of white nationalist groups in america for decades. a 20—year—old man has now been charged with murder, after a car was driven into a woman who was part of a counter—demonstration. laura bicker reports from charlottesville. after a violent day of division, charlottesville has come together to pray, to show that this city condemns the hate brought here by neo—nazis and white supremacists. the virginia governor went from row to row, hugging worshippers in this baptist church. he promised to keep politics out of the pulpit, but there was a message he felt he had to give. it is about politics in that the political rhetoric in this country today has breeded bigotry. hundreds of white supremacists
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gathered in the city for a planned rally. brawling broke out as far—right groups, including the ku klux klan, were challenged by civil rights activists. the police dispersed the crowds, but the day would not end peacefully. a car, at speed, rammed into protesters. the crash killed 32—year—old heather heyer, who had fought racism all her life. police have charged 20—year—old james fields with second—degree murder. one of the organisers of the far—right rally tried to hold a press conference. he was heckled, almost drowned out. i would like to condemn any of the violence that happened yesterday. i disavow anything that led to folks getting hurt. crowd: shame, shame, shame...
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as the crowd shouted him down, he tried to leave, but instead he was forced to flee. police moved in to keep the protesters back. these people feel that bigotry has no place in the streets of charlottesville. but this could be any town, any city across america. it is an example of the simmering racial tension, and that has become heightened under president trump. the president stopped short of explicitly condemning the alt—right for these violent scenes, and some fear that having donald trump in the white house has emboldened white supremacists. it is important for us to call these people what they are — white supremacists. i don't understand why that is so difficult. that is what they are. they're not hiding this behind the statue. they didn't come here because of a statue. they came here because, just as david duke said yesterday,
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to fulfil the promise of president trump, and take their country back. calm has been restored for now, giving the city time to remember those who lost their lives while challenging hate and trying to keep the peace. laura bicker, charlottesville. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news: scientists at israel's dimona top secret nuclear research centre have condemned the cabinets decision to get them to end a long—running partial strike. the cabinet said israel's vital interests were at stake. the researchers deny threatening essential services. the us vice president has defended president trump's comments that military intervention could be an option to solve the crisis in venezuela. mike pence said a peaceful solution is possible, but the country is currently on a path to dictatorship. mr pence is in colombia at the beginning of a regional tour. in nepal, 49 people have been killed
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in floods and landslides. rescue forces have been deployed in the primus has called an emergency meeting. elephants and rafts have been sent to rescue tourists trapped in badly hit areas. the new york times has revealed the social networking site facebook discreetly launched a photo—sharing app for chinese users. facebook is banned in mainland china, and has made clear its intentions to crack the tightly controlled market. the app, called colourful balloons, was released through a local company. in kenya, it isjust a week after the presidential election. but once again people are being asked to show their support for the government or opposition, this time by deciding whether show up for work or stay home. while the official figures show that raila 0dinga lost the election by 9%, he is calling for people to boycott theirjobs on monday. the government says the authorities will not allow a descent into chaos. from nairobi, alastair leithead reports. all chant: no peace!
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they believe the election was stolen, and they have taken to the streets. 0pposition presidential candidate raila 0dinga toured his strongholds in the capital, the first time he has appeared in public since losing the election. he urged his supporters not to accept the result. "they knew they would be defeated, and would have to steal," he told the crowd. "that's why they've come to kill innocent people, shoot them, put them in body bags and take them away." dozens have been injured and some people killed this weekend, in clashes with police. well, the question was whether or not the opposition were going to accept the results of the election. it is pretty clear now that they are not. they're calling for mass action, and for people to reject this result.
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but it won't be national. these are small pockets of protest. much of the country has accepted the result. i therefore wish to declare for uhuru kenyatta... president uhuru kenyatta was declared winner on friday night, beating his old rival by a wide margin, and now has a second term in office. international observers declared the process broadly free and fair, and the election commission dismissed claims the ballot was hacked or rigged. in a place with a history of ethnic post—election violence, tension levels have been raised again. the opposition leader has done little to urge peace, and is now taking his election challenge to the streets. alastair leithead, bbc news, nairobi. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: it is 70 years since pakistan's creation, but what do people think of the founding father's vision of the nation, as they celebrate their country's emergence as a sovereign state? the big crowds became bigger as the time of
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the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a hugejob of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutalformer dictator, has died at the age of 80. he's been buried in saudi arabia, where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979. two billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millenium. it began itsjourney off the coast of canada, ending three hours later when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc news.
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the latest headlines: america's top military chief arrives in south korea as the north says it has a right to have nuclear weapons to defend itself against the us. the white house has rejected criticism of president trump's response to virginia's racism protests. donald gregg is a former us ambassador to south korea who was also a national security advisor to george bush senior when he was vice president. i asked him what advice he would give president trump over north korea now. i would say cool it. i think that this is a time where it's very important to think before you shout, to look before you leap and we're dealing with some
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high explosive issues. we're dealing with some people who are not noted for really fleshing out in detail what they intend to do. so it's a difficult and dangerous time and i think we need to be very careful about what we say. we need to take care that we remain in clear touch with the japanese as well as the south koreans. i think going off half cocked is a very easy thing to do and i think this would be a particularly bad time to do it. i think this is a time for us to sit down, talk to each other and say "what is going on? what are the north koreans after?
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what will they sit tight for? how can we advance stability in north korea at a time where the stakes are extremely high? in terms of the perspective in the other direction, you've been to north korea many times, do you think we're dealing here with a leadership that is rational in terms of what it wants? do they have a strategy? i think they do. i think kimjong—un is a very bright, risk—taking young man. i think he is someone we need to treat with care and respect. i think he's proven his mettle quite well. i think we need to be very careful, very calm, cool and collected and stop raising the temperatures and sort of saying things off
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the top of our head that can be taken as indicating we are not satisfied with a civil relationship and that we are worried about things that would exploit the military solution. bolivia's president has formally enacted a law stripping a national park of its protected status in order to allow a new highway to be built through it. the highway plan was cancelled six years ago following a national march by indigenous people. however, president morales, who is also of indigenous heritage, has accused his critics of colonial attitudes. celebrations from at least some of bolivia's indigenous peoples. but this occasion has provoked political fireworks in those same communities. at the rally in the city of trinidad, president evo morales signed into effect a law intended to allow development in a national
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park, created over 50 years ago, to protect the rights of indigenous peoples. the new law's been condemned by environmental activists but the president dismissed their objections. translation: this so-called colonial environmentalism isn't interested in the indigenous movement having schools, hospitals, they‘ re not interested in the indigenous movement having electricity or that we have highways. the government wants to build a highway nearly 180 kilometres long right through the park. it says the vast majority of indigenous peoples support the plan, but their are plenty who still oppose it. translation: president morales is enacting a law that will bury indigenous peoples and the country's heritage. he's driving a dagger into bolivians because he is destroying the heritage that
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belongs to bolivia. campaigners have pledged to take the case to the constitutional tribunal. they may also repeat a march on the capital that helped defeat a similar plan six years ago. bolivia's battle between environment and development is farfrom over. bill hayton, bbc news. investigators in denmark say the submarine on which a missing journalist was last seen was sunk deliberately. police are still questioning the designer and owner of the vessel who managed to escape. he originally claimed he dropped off swedish journalist kim wall hours earlier. danny aberhard has more. investigators have begun scouring the nautilus. they're looking for clues to help solve the mystery about what might have happened aboard on thursday night. kim wall, a freelance journalist whose work has been published internationally, hasn't been seen
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or heard from since. the sub was raised off the sea bed on saturday. it was brought to land overnight where it was partially drained. no—one, either dead or alive, was found inside, but forensic specialists will continue their work. after he was arrested on friday, peter madsen said he had dropped ms wall off on one of copenhagen's islands on thursday night. a police spokesman said he had now given a different explanation of what happened during the voyage. the spokesman wouldn't elaborate. he also cast doubt on his account that the nautilus sank when he was trying to repair an issue with the tanks that are used for ballast. he told journalists that the submarine had apparently been sunk deliberately. meanwhile, the search for mrs wall or her body continues.
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danny aeberhard, bbc news. 70 years ago pakistan came into existence. british colonial rule ended and partition split what had been india into two nations. as pakistan celebrates independence, reeta chakrabarti has been to the city of karachi, the first capital of independent pakistan and birthplace of the country's founding father, mohammed jinnah. it's pakistan's birthday, and at every street corner there are flags and celebration. but its 70 years have been mixed. it was founded as a democracy but has had military rule and people have argued whether its founder, mohammedjinnah, wanted a secular state or an islamic one. i went to one of karachi's universities to ask students what they think ofjinnah and pakistan today. mohammed jinnah, his name is the biggest in pakistan. and even every nation of the world. he is like a father. he is the father of the nation. he created pakistan. do you thinkjinnah would be
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happy with pakistan as it is today? he would be happy. he would be happy to see pakistan progressing every day, every day, every second. on this 70th anniversary of independence, the country is doing well, it is flourishing every day. i hope it will prosper more every day. mansour, do you think thatjinnah would be happy as it is today? he would see the basic needs of the people, the basic needs of the people are not fulfilling right now. much of the problem lies in the religion. because people nowadays, they have... they're not tolerant. i mean, they're too much emotional. crowds come tojinnah's mausoleum to pay their respects. the country he founded was rocked again last month when the prime minister was forced to resign over corruption charges. finding political stability seems to be one of pakistan's biggest challenges. reeta chakra barti, bbc news, karachi. we will have a special feature
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series on bbc news about the partition of india. you can go to this website to find personal stories from people who went through partition and interactive timeline to explain why it happened 70 years ago. —— an. a reminder of our breaking story this hour. security forces in burkina faso have sealed off the centre of the capital after suspected jihadists open fire in a busy street. the government are calling it a terrorist attack. the country's communications minister said provisionally 17 have been killed, injured and set eight injured. reports say a hotel and popular turkish restaurant appeared to have been targeted. reports are they open fire on
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customers. for now, thank you for watching bbc world news. good morning. last week, the weather was pretty changeable, wasn't it? this week, it's more of the same i'm afraid. in fact, if we take a look back at last week, parts of eastern england had over 60 millimetres of rain. that's pretty close to a month's worth in just a 36—hour period. and certainly the south—east has been the wettest of the weather. pretty much close to normal at the moment so far this august in scotland and northern ireland. in fact, last week we had some decent spells of sunshine in western scotland. on wednesday, as you can see, a beautiful weather watchers picture sent in, there was over 13.5 hours of sunshine and a high of 21 degrees in glasgow.
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but generally speaking last week the jetstream was to the south. so we were on the colder side of the jetstream and the more unsettled one for some. through the weekend, though, the jetstream moved steadily north. that allowed for decent spells of sunshine for many of us and also some warmth, particularly along the kent coast, with temperatures in the mid—20s. but it has all changed as we move through monday, with wet and windy weather pushing in. the heaviest of the rain will always be across scotland through the morning. it'll be fairly ragged as it moves through wales and south—west england. but in the south—east, we keep the dry, sunny weather, and the warmth. 2a degrees not out of the question again in the london area, but that rain will pep up over south—west england and wales overnight. not too much in the south—east corner, but some rain to clear overnight on monday into tuesday. it will do so then we have a showery regime with these weather fronts sitting across the country. some of the showers will be potentially heavy and thundery as well. but if you dodge the showers, it won't feel too bad. we could see highs of 2a degrees. a little bit cooler and fresher with some showers to the north—west. a brief ridge of high pressure
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builds for us before a change is sitting in the wings waiting for us for wednesday. 0n the whole, wednesday looks promising on the whole, particularly in sheltered eastern areas. eventually, winds will strengthen with the rain pushing on. so the south—east will see the highest values. out to the west, a little more disappointing. then from wednesday night into thursday, we will see wet and windy weather pushing across the country. gales on the exposed coast in particular. this week, starting with sun and warmth, but then heavy showers, but feeling cooler later on. this is bbc news. the headlines: security forces in burkina faso have sealed off the centre of the capital, 0uagadougou, after suspected jihadists opened fire in a busy street. 17 people have reportedly been killed, and eight others injured. reports say a hotel and popular turkish restaurant appear to have been targeted. as the head of the us military prepares for talks on north korea's nuclear and missile threats in south korea, pyongyang says it has the right to have nuclear weapons for what it calls a legitimate self—defence measure for its survival from the vigor of the united states.
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a day after violence erupted in charlottesville, the virginia state governor is trying to defuse the tension. governor terry mcauliffe denounced the people who attended the unite the right rally. it was the biggest gathering of white nationalist groups in america for decades. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk, and another chance to see stephen sackur‘s interview with the screenwriter
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